In The Invisible Man, Wells works out the theme that nothing is gained without a corresponding loss. Griffin, the medical student, discovers how to make himself invisible, but as a result loses his sanity. The novel is a cautionary tale, warning that a person's intellectual achievement must still contend with more primitive drives.

The Invisible Man is also a social comedy, inviting laughter as the rural population of Sussex responds to the "strange man" all "wrapped up from head to foot." Instead of inspiring fear with his pranks as he had hoped, Griffin angers the villagers. Surrounded by colorful, stock English characters, all of whom have their own plans for him, Griffin loses everything: clothing, money, his notes, and his life. At the novel's end, a tramp, with ambitions for wealth and power that parody Griffin's own, hoards the scientist's notes and dreams "the undying wonderful dream...